Unit Three

From Boom to Bust: America in the 1920s




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1920streetcatstrikeyongenu1.jpg

Below are three links to the documentary you need to view by November 10. It is The Century: Peter Jennings and these three links make up the three parts of the episode dealing with the 1920s. It is filled with interesting film and quality commentary and really covers the decade visually. This should be help you better visualize the readings.
Part I:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foooDFF9Dgs&feature=related

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJuEi-U6pmo&feature=watch_response

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPP7FE8RIbY&feature=watch_response

Study Guide: external image msword.png study guide.doc

Unit Agenda:
external image msword.png unit agendaoc.doc



Advertising in the 1920s:

After the war, general circulation magazines dropped the theme of reform and picked up on the culture of consumerism. Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post , featuring Norman Rockwell's paintings on its cover, became fixtures in middle-class homes around the country. Hoping to attract serious newsreaders, Henry Luce began publishing Time in 1923. New tabloid newspapers launched after the war, like the New York Daily News ,
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external image snpmech4b.jpg

Colgate Toothpaste Ad - 1924
$.25 for the large tube

achieved large circulation by covering crime, sports and scandals. Advertisers, now reaching millions of consumers on a daily or weekly basis, hired movie stars and sports figures to persuade Americans to buy all types of products, from coffee to tobacco products. Business had become America's secular religion, thanks to advertising. Bruce Barton's 1925 book comparing religion and business, The Man Nobody Knows , declared Jesus Christ's parables as "the most powerful advertisements of all time.... He would be a national advertiser today."
Coca-Cola serves as a good example of how product advertising changed over this forty-year period. When first introduced in the 1880s, the product was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, and that it "revived and sustained" a person. Seeking to build repeat business and brand loyalty, by the 1920s the company emphasized it as a refreshment and a "fun food". Consumers demanding the cola at soda fountains could pressure storeowners to stock it, or risk losing their business. Today Coca-Cola is one of the largest and most visible companies in the world thanks to its successful advertisement campaigns.
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The Internet is teeming with ads from the 1920s that demonstrate the "national culture" and consumerism of the 1920s. The example above illustrates the ways advertisers appealed to consumers. For this assignment - you must find an ad from the 1920s and post it in the space below. Along with the image, you must offer an analysis of how that ad represented the shift toward consumerism in the 1920s.
For example: in the ad above, the young man represents a healthy, good-looking American who has lesiure time to spend playing lawn games wi
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th friends. If he wants to keep those friends, and that lifestyle, he'll want clean, white teeth. This demonstrates that ads in the 1920s were geared towards selling a lifestyle, not just a product. Everyone wants to live like this young man, therefore everyone wants clean, white teeth as well, and they need Colgate to make that possible.
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This advertisement for Camay soap shows a man talking to a woman. According to this advertisement, men and women judge each other based on how cleanly they are and that the soap will make people have more "loveliness." The ad also explains that people cannot even walk out their door without someone examining their skin. This ad encourages people to want to use Camay Soap because it is "the soap of beautiful women." This shows that ads in the 1920s made people feel self concious and want to better themselves because other people were judging them daily, and the way to better themselves would be to use Camay Soap. - Haley Evans
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This picture is advertising Rowntree's Chocolate. The picture is of a little girl eating and enjoying it. In the cursive, fancy writing writing on the bottom saying " delight in every bite" shows that the chocolate is good enough to mabe be used for a special occasion. The ad is trying to convey that the chocolate is delicious and everyone can enjoy it. The little girl in the ad looks very wholesome and clean, portraying that the ingrediants in the chocolate will be the same.
Rebecca Mullin

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external image Chesterfieldwomansmoking33.jpg

This ad represents Americas shift towards consumerism in the 1920s by marketing cigarettes to women. The ad is aimed at women and it promotes flapper ideas, it shows the woman as attractive wearing the high heels, red lipstick, and short hair. It’s trying to market smoking as something that young, beautiful, independent women do. It wants women to think that if they want to be beautiful independent women they should smoke. It also markets them as having a pleasing taste, and being mild which would appeal to women more.
-Patrick Anderson

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This advertisement, used to attempt to sell Red Rock Cola, is endorsed by Babe Ruth. Ruth was an American role model in the 1920's, and there is a quote from Ruth that reads: "It's the finest cola drink I ever tasted." The ad is attempting to persuade people to buy Red Rock Cola, as it has been "approved by Babe Ruth. Using a celebrity endorsement, the advertisement is able to get viewers to think that if they buy and drink Red Rock Cola, they can be just like Babe Ruth. The advertisement shows that people in the 1920's had celebrity idols and role models, and if a certain product was endorsed by a celebrity, consumers would buy that product. In this way, it allows buyers to believe that they can be just like their favorite celebrity, who has only been paid to endorse the product they are buying.
- Andrew Lemieux

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This advertisement is focused on selling Buescher saxophones. The Buescher saxophone is advertised through stating that, "The Boy with a Buescher Always Gets Ahead." through this statement the ad tells readers that if they played a Buescher they would always be the best player. The ad also implies that other saxophones have less features than the Buescher. Along with these tactics, Buescher is also trying to target the women who want to play the saxophone by stating that they too can make money with the Buescher. This advertisement shows that trough using definitive statements, a 1920's individual would be convinced to buy a product, after all. "the boy with a Buescher always gets ahead."
Emily Moxie


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This advertisement depicts a pretty, well-groomed woman smoking a Marlboro cigarette. The appears very healthy and attractive, which is the opposite of what women who smoked cigarettes were thought to be. The new "ivory tips" are supposed to protect the smoker's lips, so the model's lips are full and red, not thin and cracked which would be expected of a smoker. This ad promotes the "flapper girl" lifestyle, of being confident and independent in your actions as a woman. This model has short hair, long nails, red lipstick, and is obviously smoking which are all new trends that were frowned upon until the 1920s. Also the ad implies that if you smoke ciagarettes, you can be just as trendy and attractive as the model in this advertisement because of their mildness. This ad also portrays an obvious sex appeal of the model, which attracted the male consumer as well.
Erin Duffey


rtisements is for a soap brand called Vinolla. This advertisment is a cartoon drawn to attract the attention of the everyday family. The cute little child and puppy inosently sitting in the tub can easily relate to any ordinary family. In the 1920's a key point of advertising was to connect and relate back to the consumer. Having this advertisment in news papers and on the side of roads would result in some very good out comes, for the average family of the 1920's can relate back to the child in the cartoon and is also longing for that inocents he brings and that america had before world war one began. - Melissa Shannon











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This is an advertisement for the Edgeworth Tobacco company.This image portrays two men relaxing on the beach while smoking their tobacco in a pipe. In the corner of the advertisement there is a caption that says "Tobacco at its best- in a pipe!" These men look like they are enjoying themselves. This suggests to the buyers and viewers of this ad that if they were to buy Edgeworth tobacco, they can relax by the beach and have an enjoyable life, like the two men as shown. This type of advertisement lures the people into believing that life could be better by just buying Edgeworth tobacco. In the 1920's, the postwar people wanted their life to be better and easier, like the advertisements portray, especially this Edgeworth ad.
Nicole Meyerson





This picture is advertising Prince Albert products. This advertisment was created in the purpose to pursuade people, specifically men to buy Prince Albert tobacco. The add shows a man smoking a pipe and a women looking at him in admiration. The Heading of the add, “For your pleasure and hers…be you’ve got P.A” shows that by men buying and smoking P.A tobacco its not only pleasurable for you but the women will also want you and be more attracted to you. In addition the caption below the picture lures people to buy P.A tobacco and only P.A because it is the only product that is easy on your tongue. “It’s a joy to smoke” in fact it is the “national joy smoke”. This add was successful because everyone man in the 1920s who saw this add wanted to be in the man in the picture. To them buying Prince Albert meant a better life with more women coming after them and tobacco that wouldn’t hurt your tongue. In fact it was good for your tongue.
Wesley Swain

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This ad shows a happy couple enjoying using a Remington typewriter. The small text explains how it will make the couples life easier and more modern - and even more stylish. This ad is making the generalization that happy, stylish, modern people are using tyewriters instead of taking the extra time to write out copies and other papers by hand. It even says that writing by hand was "out of date" and using typewriters will allow "more leisure time" while being an ideal gift for a college student. 1920s advertisments like this one were appealing and successful because relaxed and modern lives were in style at the time and almost suggested tools like typwriters were necessary to make this possible.
Karly Coppola

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This ad is for Viceroy Filtered Cigarettes, a new "healthy" way to smoke. The ad shows a man whom you can assume is a dentist due to him holding a mirror for cleaning teeth. The man, with a serious looking face, says to all viewers that "As your Dentist, I would recommend Viceroys." This tabacco company used a trustworthy figure of a dentist to help try and sell their products to people and assure them that smoking is harmless. Using such a trustworthy figure would make people feel more safe when buying the product, knowing that their cigarettes were approved by a dentist. As you can also see in the add, the name of the product is portrayed five times, bolded or underlined, to make sure their viewers remember the brands name. Advertisements like these and many others in the 1920's were successful in leading people to buy their products.
Marina Pedini

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This advertisement for the Stewart-Warner Radio shows two kids on Christmas morning, looking under the tree in shock and joy at the radio underneath. Below it, written in fancy text it says “The Gift that keeps on giving.” This means that the Stewart-Warner radio is a perfect Christmas gift because it isn’t something you will play with for a couple of days and then get rid of, but instead a great invention that can entertain you for hours with news, politics, and music. If you buy the radio, you will be fully satisfied no matter what age you are, and by listening to it you will always be on top of things. Life was made easier for a lot of people in the 1920's, and the Stewart-Warner Radio was one of the many inventions that improved the quality of life.
Holly Gammon

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This advertisment for Coca-Cola portrays two young women enjoying Coca-Cola out of the bottle. They both look like they are enjoying themselves and do not have a care in the world. Beneath the women it states, "Thru 50 years... 1886 to 1936 The pause that refreshes", which mean throughout the war and everything that the American people have been through, Coca-Cola enables you to feel "refreshed" at only 5 cents. Also Coca-Cola was a way to meet attractive women because they drank it as well.The women in the blue seems to envy the women in the yellow as a young girl might envy her as well. Proving to a young girl that by drinking Coca-Cola you will be beautiful and envied by others. No matter what the American people go through Coca-Cola will always be able to refresh them. People of the 1920s loved the idea of taking a "pause" from their busy lives and drinking some "delicious and refreshing" Coca-Cola.
Erin Gerhard



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This is one of the advertisements Cadbury used to sell their chocolate. The show a young boy holding a one of their boxes with a smile. Because there is a child on the ad, parents will think that this chocolate is different from others in that it is good for kids. Children will also urge their parents to buy this because they think the child in the ad loves the candy, so they will too. Parents, of course, would then buy their kids the candy and Cadbury would continue to create more influential ads. The success of advertising showed how people in this time were open to spending money more than ever beforeThis advertisement is appealing because people in the 1920’s were new to the whole advertisement business and therefore were easily influenced.
-Chris Durkin

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This is an ad used in the late 1920's for the advertisement of Wrigley's Gum. First it portays the gum as "The Perfect Gum" hoping for customers to see their gum as the perfect gum. Then it says that, "Hot days lose their terror in the cooling freshness of Wrigley's Spearmint." Wrigley wanted consumers to think that the gum is refreshing enough to make a miserable day a good one. They saw that as an effective way of soliciting consumers to purchase their product. Then at the bottom their is a young boy offering a young girl some of his Wrigley's Spearmint and they both have smiles on their faces. They wanted to give the idea to young kids and adults that their product could help them with their relationships.
-Alex Way


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This is an add used by Listerine to help sell their product during the 1920's. The advertisment first gets your attention by asking the question" How's your breath today?". Then by answering their own question by telling you that " If it's( your breath) bad, you won't be welcomed" by people. But then by making the reader not feel bad about them selves for having by breath by explaining that everyone has it but the only way to fix it is by using Listerine. Then to the right of the reading it shows a man dancing with an attractive women. This image is trying to prove to the reader that if you do have good breath from using Listerine you will be able to meet attractive women.
-Eric Sullivan

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This an ad used by the Sperry Candy Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The candy company is promoting their newest product, "Chicken Dinner". Sperry is trying to get the point across that their candy bar can have the wholesome value of an actual homemade chicken dinner, as portrayed in the ad. Also, the company recognizes that any true American loves their home-cooked chicken dinners, and will therefore thoroughly enjoy their newest product. Although the candy bar doesn't actually taste like a chicken dinner, the name and marketing of the product is what made it sell. The candy bar could also bring together families, such as the typical chicken dinner in households around America did and still does. The success of the advertising shows how the Americans of that time period thought about their food and their gullibility towards what was put out on the market.
Brendan O'Neil





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This is an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes which implores clever marketing tactics. The focus of this ad is to make the reader get the idea that bye smoking this brand of cigarettes that they can refrain from eating as much. This plays on one of Americas main desires which is to be skinny which was especially important during the 1920’s because people were beginning to date who they wanted to instead of who their parents wanted them too. This advertisement also uses the tactic of using the sports celebrity Johnny Farrell to sell their product. When an average person sees that an iconic athlete uses a product like Lucky Strikethey want to be great like them. - Joey Lawyer



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This advertisement portrays a picture of Babe Ruth, saying that his favorite drink is coca cola. The advertisement is actually for Red Rock cola, yet Babe Ruth is one of the central images. The price mentioned where it says 5 cents, combined with Babe Ruth’s quote “it’s the finest drink I’ve ever tasted” make the soft drink particularly alluring. You don’t get any feed back on what the soft drink tastes like, but knowing Babe Ruth likes it is enough. In the 1920’s baseball evolved into America’s most popular sport. Americans in the roaring 20’s had more leisure time and chose to spend there money on things such as baseball games. Furthermore, Babe Ruth was considered a heroic idol in America, and so his endorsement is what makes this ad so successful. Also the idea of having thirst of having a nice cold Red Rock cola at a baseball game may lure people in.
-Shannon Brady



Coca Cola Ad
Coca Cola Ad


This is a picture of a lady next to a throne. There is a very nice looking table that has Coke labels on it and a glass of coke is sitting on top of it. The woman is dressed in very nice clothes. She looks like a queen or princess. They have her next to the coke so that people will see that the best drink coke. The queen drinks it, so everyone should drink. It is saying that maybe if you drink coke, you could become wealthy and even a queen. It says the drink is "delicious and refreshing". It also shows the low price of 5 cents. This will get more people buying because it is low and someone like the woman in this picture drinks it, so its worth buying.
-Dan DelGrosso